Telephone message systems and voice mail systems have become widely used. In fact, these systems are now essential for most industries and are extensively utilized. Such systems allow a calling party to record a voice message or a numeric message for a recipient when the calling party does not reach the recipient (e.g., when the recipient is not available to answer the call, when the recipient is connected to another calling party, etc.). These systems may be incorporated in the general telephone system, and may route telephone calls from the calling parties to the respective recipients. Additionally, the telephone message systems (or the voice mail systems) may be incorporated in a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) of the recipient.
Generally, to record a voice message when the calling party cannot be connected to the recipient, the calling party is first connected to the telephone message system (or the voice mail system). The calling party is then prompted to speak a message. In response thereto, the calling party provides a voice message through a telephone microphone. The voice message is then stored in a storage arrangement (e.g., a storage unit, memory, etc.) of the message system. Finally, the connection between the calling party and the system is severed. The recipient can retrieve the stored message from the telephone message system. Thereafter, the recipient contacts the calling party by dialing the calling party's telephone number. However, if the calling party did not provide a telephone number in the voice message, the recipient may have no way of knowing how to contact the calling party.
Some telephone message systems allow the calling party to provide a numeric message to the recipient if the recipient is not available. For example, when the calling party is connected to the telephone message system, the calling party may indicate the originating telephone number using a touchtone key pad of the calling party's telephone. The telephone message system then translates this telephone number into system voice generated numbers. These system voice generated numbers can then be stored in the telephone message system. The recipient can then retrieve these numbers and contact the calling party.
Other developments in the known voice mail systems enable the calling party's telephone number to be extracted from the data transmitted by the telephone system in connection with the call. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,269 describes a telephone communication apparatus that includes equipment which detects a calling party's telephone number (i.e., the calling number). The calling number is then stored in a data storage unit, along with a recorded message from the calling party. The recipient of the message retrieves the message and the stored calling number.
However, none of the known systems and methods allows the recipient of a telephone message to automatically return the call by pressing a predetermined key sequence. Furthermore, known systems and methods do not address billing the calling party for the returned telephone call that is initiated by the recipient of the message (i.e., with a predetermined key sequence).